May 26, 2008

LMO SIDEBAR: 'Icing on the Cake'

by Matt DaSilva, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff

FOXBOROUGH, Mass.-The restoration of Syracuse lacrosse could not be complete, it seemed, without a helping hand from its most significant adversary.

A year after a 5-8 record forced his team to miss the NCAA tournament for the first time in 25 years and sent head coach John Desko into some serious self-examination, the Orange did a full roundabout, punctuated by a 13-10 victory Monday over Johns Hopkins in the Division I championship game before a record 48,970 fans at Gillette Stadium.

"After last year's season, to get these guys back in the playoff hunt, make it to the final four and play a crazy Virginia game (a double-overtime, semifinal win Saturday), you could see at halftime they didn't want to be denied," Desko said.

Senior attackman Mike Leveille, whom Desko said headlined a group of seniors to "grab this team around the neck" following 2007, was named the championship's Most Outstanding Player with a goal and two assists.

Leveille, conversely, lauded the Syracuse coaching staff for its about-face in leading the Orange to its 10th NCAA title, one more than Hopkins for the most among Division I schools.

"To take all that pressure, they never quit on us," he said. "They came back more energized than ever."

But neither Leveille nor Desko's effective staff reorganization could be considered the biggest reasons for Syracuse's success Monday.

Despite 20 saves by Michael Gvozden, the most by a goalkeeper in an NCAA championship game in 13 years, and the best game of Paul Rabil's career (6g, 1a), the defending champion Blue Jays fell flat in the fourth quarter behind uncharacteristic misplay.

"The mistakes we made during the game were at critical junctures," said Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala.

Hopkins, which had defeated tournament favorite Duke in its semifinal Saturday, bolted to a 4-2 lead in the first quarter on Steven Boyle's inside roll with 8.1 seconds remaining.

"You start to sense, 'Hey, we're up 4-2, we can do this.' And then it slips away," Pietramala said.

The Blue Jays led 5-3 in the second quarter after Gvozden sprawled left on a point-blank range shot by Stephen Keogh for one of his 14 first-half saves and found Michael Kimmel for a fast break finished by Kyle Wharton.

But poor marksmanship kept Hopkins from converting any of its four first-half extra-man opportunities. Syracuse broke Gvozden with a man-down goal punctuated by Kenny Nims, but highlighted by a full-field scurry by Matt Abbott, then tallies by Pat Perritt and Dan Hardy to seize a 6-5 halftime lead.

Hardy then caught the Blue Jays napping on a substitution from the sideline and shot a bullet past Gvozden in stride just 21 seconds into the third quarter to make it 7-5.

"We wanted to push it on them," Hardy explained, "get them back on their heels a little bit."

Hopkins appeared to catch a break when Stephen Peyser, tied up by a double-team, found Rabil on a fortuitous flip, which Rabil deposited from 12 yards out to close within 9-8 with 4:17 left in the third quarter. But Hardy (3g) bullied past short-stick George Castle for a goal just 28 seconds later.

The Blue Jays unraveled in the fourth quarter. Peyser won the opening faceoff, but Boyle failed to reel in a pass from Rabil on the sideline, the first in a sequence of costly turnovers. On the ensuing possession, Nims slipped off the back side of Eric Zerrlaut and got free for a goal that made it 11-8 at the 12:32 mark.

Gvozden managed two more saves on Syracuse's next possession, won by Danny Brennan (13-of-26), but Hopkins could not break the Orange's zone ride. Peyser and Dave Spaulding found double- and triple-teams on the resulting clears, both resulting in Blue Jay turnovers.

Syracuse's three unanswered goals - the third came after long-stick middie Matt Bocklet's pass back to Gvozden on a faceoff was intercepted on the doorstep by Greg Niewrowski and fed to Leveille - effectively ended any hope for a Hopkins comeback.

"If you ask me about Matt Bocklet making that play, I tell you 10 out of 10 times it never happens," Pietramala said. "They're good at putting you under pressure. I don't think we played with poise as we maybe have in the past. I thought at times we played like we were worried about losing rather than like we wanted to win."

Syracuse, on the other hand, was opportunistic at every turn, despite encountering another hot-handed goalkeeper. In wins over Virginia and Notre Dame in the NCAA semifinals and quarterfinals, respectively, Bud Petit and Joey Kemp managed 16 and 20 saves against the Orange.

Solving Gvozden came with the same persistent philosophy: shoot at all costs.

"In our type of offense, there are so many good shooters," said Hardy, who took eight of Syracuse's 46 shots. "We're not going to stop shooting."

"We knew, eventually, they would fall," Leveille said.

The same could be said about Johns Hopkins.